McNair optimistic Houston will host another Super Bowl

Texans owner Bob McNair, not surprisingly, strongly supports an all-in civic effort to get another Super Bowl for Houston, and he’d applaud seeing the decaying Astrodome restored to at least something approaching its former glory.

But neither task is on McNair’s personal front burner. He’s much more concerned about the future upkeep of — and improvements for — Reliant Stadium, which his team calls home and where a Super Bowl would be held.

“Our first concern is Reliant Stadium,” McNair said Thursday. “We want to make sure we’ve got adequate funds there for repairs, replacement and improvements, and right now we don’t have ade-quate funds. I’d like to see that taken care of first.”

McNair claimed only $2.5 million is going into the stadium’s upkeep fund when $8 million is needed, explaining that the economic downturn since 2008 has significantly cut into tax revenues that would have been earmarked for stadium repairs, replacement parts and upgrades.

“(Commissioners) court has been very supportive,” said McNair, who watched the Texans’ OTA practice with Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee, on whose turf the Reliant complex sits. “It’s just now being brought to their attention. They’re contractually obligated to (maintain the stadium), but with the recession and the difference in tax receipts that were anticipated, there hasn’t been as much money available. (The Texans) and the rodeo have helped, and we’ll continue to do that. But it’s something that needs to be addressed long term.

“Compared to the other issues that we’re looking at, it’s a drop in the bucket. I think it needs to be addressed first.”

The “drop in the bucket” McNair referred to was the Harris County Sports & Convention Corp.’s plan, unveiled Wednesday, to recommend Commissioners Court ask voters to approve renovating the Astrodome into a viable multipurpose venue. A study commissioned by the Sports & Convention Corp. estimated the cost of the Dome’s makeover at $270 million and replacing the adjacent Reliant Arena at $385.4 million.

Texans help by winning

“I think it’s very preliminary at this point,” McNair said of the estimates. “But something needs to be done with the Astrodome. It’s just going downhill. I’m glad the commissioners will be looking at it. If they deem it the right thing to do and want to submit something to the voters to make a determination, that’s fine.”

As for the efforts to bring the 2017 Super Bowl to Houston, he indicated he wouldn’t play as major a role as he has in the past.

“I think the city should (work to get the game),” McNair said. “It’s a big effort. I’m glad there are some people interested in stepping in there and getting the process started. It should be the city taking the lead rather than the Texans. I’m glad to see them doing it.”

But he admitted the Texans could indirectly lend a huge hand — by winning games.

“I think we’ll get another Super Bowl in the future,” McNair said. “And frankly, I think the performance of our team enhances our ability to do that, because it heightens the public awareness of Houston. I think the better we do (as a team), the more favorably people will look upon Houston.”

The Texans’ financial success, however, has been something of a hindrance. Although McNair negotiated Super Bowl XXXVIII’s coming to town in 2004 in return for agreeing to pay a $700 million expansion fee to land the NFL’s 32nd franchise, he was rebuffed in subsequent efforts to bring the game back in large part because he’s considered one of the “have” owners, which cost him much-needed support from the oft-disgruntled “have not” group.

Destination Houston?

McNair doesn’t “plan to change positions” — in other words, he fully intends to remain a “have” — but he admitted what must change to guarantee a third visit by the NFL’s hyper-lucrative championship game, first played here at Rice Stadium in 1974, are the perceptions people have about Houston “as a destination city.”

“When people think about, ‘Where am I going on vacation?’ they tend typically to not think about Houston, and that’s part of (the problem),” he said. “We need to change that. The (Greater Houston) Partnership has been working on it, and we’ve contributed to that effort.”

McNair believes the new NFL labor agreement that got hammered out last summer levels the playing field between the high-revenue teams like his and the franchises that don’t make as much money. So the acrimony between the factions should improve, which would benefit Houston’s chances.

“Revenue sharing isn’t the issue it used to be,” he said, “and that eliminates some of the tension.”